POPULATION: Lower Births

For nine straight months, the National
Office of Vital Statistics reported last week, the U.S. birth rate has
run below the previous year's corresponding months. For the first five
months of 1960 there were some 1,676,000 birthsor 1.9% fewer than in
the same period of 1959. By strange contrast, marriages rose by 3.7% in
the period, to 526,000 in May.